Makie And The Brain
by AckSed
Summary: She's a normal girl in an unusual class. He's a megalomanaical mouse. Together, they plan to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!
1. Chapter 1

Original idea and song by Over Master

Story by Ack Sed

**Makie and the Brain**

Makie (sitting before a small cage placed on her nightstand): "Tell me, Brain-sama... What are we going to do tonight?"

Mouse in the cage: "The same thing we do every night, Makie... Try to take over the world!"

_Makie and the Brain_  
_They're Makie and the Brain_  
_Yes, Makie and the Brain_  
_One is a genius, the other's just plain_  
_He is egomaniacal, she's very nice_  
_Their series have been spliced_  
_They're wacky_  
_They're Makie and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain_

_Before each night is done_  
_Their plan will be unfurled_  
_By the dawning of the sun_  
_They'll take over the world_  
_They're Makie and the Brain_  
_Yes, Makie and the Brain_  
_Their twilight campaign_  
_Is easy to explain_  
_To prove their lousy worth_  
_They'll overthrow the Earth_  
_They're wacky_  
_They're Makie and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain_ - KAWAII!

_THE TOKYO TITCHYCLYSM_

Chapter 1_  
_

In retrospect, she shouldn't have given him the magic pill. Before this he'd just been her pet mouse - now he was so... bossy. She sort of sympathised. If she'd been made super-smart, a couple of inches tall and confined to a cage, she'd be a little ticked off too.

But his plans...

"Tonight, we shall set into motion a plan so deviously subtle, yet so daring, that my name shall be spoken with awe forever more!"

Makie sighed. "All right Brain. Can you help me with my homework again? Ooh, I rhymed!"

Brain glared at Makie. "Of all the owners I could have had, it had to be you. You are not taking me seriously!"

"I am, I am! It's just I reeeally need to pass this maths test and you're so smart that it'd only take a minute..." Smart or not, flattery always got somewhere with him.

"I suppose I ''could'' spare the small amount of time it would take to demolish your teacher's pretensions of grandeur. Very well! Open my cage and hand me my pencil!"

Makie unlatched the cage door to let Brain jump out onto the bed as she took out her homework. The first time he'd walked upright, she'd thought he was doing a trick just for her, and had squeed and clapped excitedly. The shock of hearing him say, "I am NOT your performing dog." had ended _that_. (It was still cute.)

The Brain (as he'd insisted upon being called ever since) took the proffered pencil stub and began muttering over her homework. "Quadratic equations - your teachers are even more moronic than I suspected. Calculus and trigonometry are _true_ tools! But here is how it goes..." Makie tried her best to follow along as he explained. The others in 2-A wondered why she had so much time for gym - it was like her homework did itself lately.

The dreaded homework was seen to within fifteen minutes. Now for the other part, the part that exhausted her and was the real reason for her erratic grades. The way he explained it, a world under him did seem nice, and he wasn't malicious, not like Haruna could be... it was just she couldn't see how a mouse could rule the world. She kept _this_ to herself.

The Brain began to pace across the bedspread. "Makie! What is the current price for a square metre of land in downtown Tokyo?"

"Uum... a lot?"

"Indeed, Makie, it _is_ 'a lot', but not as much as you would think, after the real-estate bubble. According to my calculations, it is due to rise appreciably with the new influx of second generation Japanese returning to set up business in their home country. If I buy it, they will take advantage of the cheap land, their businesses will flourish and drive up prices, then I shall sell it off to the highest bidder and utilise the money to make the first step on my path to WORLD DOMINATION! Are you with me?"

"Yes Brain!", said Makie, carried along by his enthusiasm. "Only... I don't have the money to buy land, and I'm not sure a 14-year-old girl can own property legally."

"Bah - a mere trifle. Never fear, for this is the most brilliant part. In order to acquire enough yen to buy land in Tokyo and corner the market in the most lucrative real estate area in the world, I shall steal the Tokyo Tower!"

Oh boy.

OoOoOo

Even sneaking out of the door, bundled up in her darkest hoodie and grey jogging bottoms, was making Makie's heart pound so loudly she was _sure_ the guard on duty downstairs could hear it, and she wasn't even in the university labs yet. Hinata-san always fell asleep around this time, but she could be merciless if you were caught after curfew; in her opinion, the only reason any girl would want to sneak out was to meet a BOY.

Makie wondered if she could get away with telling her the truth: working towards a better tomorrow by helping a superintelligent mouse steal and ransom the Tokyo Tower. She didn't quite believe it herself.

She looked over the plan in the glow of the emergency lights.

1. Sneak into Hakase's lab and 'borrow' necessary components.  
2. £*%$  
3. PROFIT

"Ah, Brain-sama," she whispered, "I'm not so sure I understand this plan."

The Brain poked his head out from under her hood. "Why? I have simplified it to a level that even your intellect can comprehend. Besides, the second step is simply too complicated to summarise. It is your job to convey me there so I can begin my work."

She sighed (quietly) and leaned over the banister with a little mirror to confirm that Hinata-san was asleep. Lucky! Her heartbeat dropped to something approaching normality. She swung over the banister and hung by her fingertips, dropping down from the first floor and landing on the heavy carpet with barely a thump. They approached the front desk, where Brain scuttled across to the security system and tapped in the code; it blinked off. Brain ran up her arm and into her hood again.

Stopping only to change her slippers for her second-best trainers from her pack, she opened the door and slipped out.

Down in the university campus, Makie nonchalantly leaned against the wall beside the door of the engineering lab, as if resting from a run. Only someone who was looking for it would notice the flash of white as it scrabbled up the wall and into the ventilation shaft. Makie jogged off round the corner then hid in one of the bushes.

Ten minutes of waiting nervously was rewarded by a buzz as the door opened and the security camera light winking out.

It was eerie inside, the dim sodium glow of the street lights outside bathing everything in an orange hue that only served to deepen the shadows.

Therefore it was quite understandable that Makie would shriek when she felt tiny little _claws_ touch her ankle and start clambering up.

"_**AAA**mmmph_", said she, clapping her hand over her own mouth.

"SSSHH!", hissed the Brain (for it was he), climbing up to her shoulder. "Let us hope your woollen-headed incompetence has not alerted the security guard."

They waited, listening for any approaching footsteps and subsequent trouble. Nothing.

The Brain and Makie breathed a sigh of relief. "Fortune smiles upon us for once. This way!", he said, pointing down the corridor. She followed obediently.

OoOoOo

Deep in the tangled chaos of Hakase's personal lab, an otherwise normal red-haired Japanese schoolgirl was assisting a small white figure half the height of a pencil in twisting the arm of particle physics till it gave them its lunch money.

At least that's how he explained it. To Makie it looked like he was soldering a random assortment of circuit boards into a handheld vacuum cleaner.

The Brain had surveyed the laboratory with something approaching awe, exclaiming "Where have you been all my life!" before he could catch himself. Setting to work, he'd begun directing Makie to fetch him parts from the drawers, to hold this, or solder that when he needed more strength (there were already a couple of burns straight through the sleeve of her hoodie, dammit).

"Rare-earth ring modulator" he said, holding out a paw.

"Uhh... uh..." Searching for a specific part in the wire and capacitor haystack was an exercise in futility by the light of the single work lamp. She spun around, weathervane-style, hoping her bewilderment was obvious enough to warrant divine inspiration or a hint from Brain-sama - whichever came first.

"Fifth drawer, green clear-fronted cabinet, above my head", recited Brain.

Not for the first time Makie wondered at exactly how smart Brain-sama was. She dug out a little metal doughnut wired to a board and handed it down.

"Thank you. Almost... finished... there!" He soldered the last connection into place and stood back to survey his work.

"Yayy, Brain! Err... what is it?"

Gesturing towards the finished article, he proclaimed, "Can't you see? THIS is a Graviton Emitter with a Lossless Ratio-preserving Dimensional Trap and I, **I** have succeeded in minaturising it!"

"You still haven't told me what it does, Brain."

The Brain looked disgruntled. "Your education leaves _everything_ to be desired. Simply, it _blah word_ dimensionally _chatter chatter jargon_ to create _doodle bunk yah_ and reversibly shrink any solid object with _science words_."

Makie hadn't understood half of that, but she had caught 'shrink'. "Oh I get it! It's a shrink ray!"

The Brain sighed. "Yes, if you wanted to reduce this to the level of flying saucers made of paper plates, it is indeed 'a shrink ray'." Makie had the impression he was waiting for her to ask, so...

"Can I see if it works?"

Offended (though not really) he said, "Of course it works! Help me stand it in this vice, and aim it at that chair."

Makie lifted it into the vice; the Brain inserted the battery pack, set the switch on the body to 'Suck' and hit the power.

Capacitors whined, then a yellow beam shot out of the nozzle and struck the chair; with a pop of inrushing air, it shrunk down to doll-house size.

"YES! Now witness the firepower of this fully-armed and operational battlestation!", cried the Brain.

"What?"

Embarrassed, he looked down at his feet. "Er... *cough*... I, er, always wanted... to say that."

Makie giggled. It was kind of cute to see him act all abashed.

Recovering his poise, he directed Makie to remove the GELRDT ("Okay, how do I work the Gerrdut... Gelurdoot... can't we call it a shrink ray, Brain-sama?" "...Fine.") from the vice and try to restore the shrunken chair.

Makie flipped it to 'Blow', aimed and fired. With a crack/whoosh, it grew to its original proportions. "Hooray! Hail Il Palazzo!"

The Brain looked confused.

"Hehehe - I felt like joining in."

"Er, well... thank you. Now come, child! We must get back to the room and prepare for stage two before the ogre of the dormitory awakens!"

Makie put the shrink ray into her pack while Brain climbed to her shoulder. "Hinata-san isn't an ogre, she's nice! Just a little... protective, that's all."

"If you say so. I still say her cat runs off because she tries to eat him."

"Brain-samaa..."

They hurried out of the building and back to the dorm, bickering all the way.

* * *

This not-serious-at-all story grew out of a thread game to come up with 101 ideas for Negima fics. It's been on the back burner for quite a while - I'm posting in the hope it'll motivate me to finish it. :-) The feel of it is deliberately closer to PATB than Negima, as it's a lot simpler to mentally translate moving cartoons to text than a visually crowded manga page. Plus, it's funnier.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Stage Two began the next day, after school. Hakase was asking some pointed questions of Chao as she left the class; Chao's semi-smile over Hakase's shoulder at Makie hinted at a worrying amount of insight. Makie begged off her gymnastics club and hurried back to her room.

Brain huffily said, "Finally. What took you so long?" as she entered and locked the door behind her. Having to wait in his cage never improved his temper. Neither did the fact that she'd locked the shrink ray in the closet to prevent any... accidents; she'd learned her lesson after the third smoking crater.

"I'm sorry, Brain-sama, I came as quickly as I could. What's the next phase?"

"It is so laughably simple that a child could do it. First we shall board the bullet train to the city of Tokyo at 6:02 P.M.-"

"But Brain", cried Makie, "that'll take most of my allowance!"

"If we pull this off you shall no longer have to worry about 'allowances'. May I continue?"

Makie nodded.

"Once there, we shall shrink the tower, stealing it in the ensuing panic caused by the sudden outage of television signals in the Minato area. Finally we shall contact the authorities and if they do not meet our demands for five hundred million American dollars in unmarked bills, we shall... we shall..."

Evidently it was so simple that he hadn't thought that far ahead; Makie threw him a bone. "Shrink some more stuff?"

"Precisely! And raise, no, _double_ the ransom. If they continue to refuse I shall miniaturize the whole of Tokyo!" A flash of inspiration struck the Brain like a thunderbolt. "Wait a second! Makie! Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

"Umm, I think so Brain-sama, but I still don't know why a ten-year-old boy was allowed to become a teacher of a classful of fourteen-year-old girls."

"...a sage observation, Makie. However, that is _not_ germane to our current situation. Instead of the tedious vagaries of the property market, we shall simply ransom every single landmark in downtown Tokyo! Once we have their money, the owners of the properties will be forced to drop their prices to cover their debts. Then it will be a simple matter to _buy_ the entire **country**! The sheer audacity is breathtaking, don't you agree?"

Makie barely stopped herself from facepalming. "Brain, promise me you'll stick to the Tokyo Tower first. Please? For me?"

The Brain pouted, but met her eyes and acquiesced. "Very well. Though genius is oft held back by caution, you are somewhat new to this. I shall adhere to the original plan... for now."

"Thank you, Brain-sama." She removed him from the cage, retrieved her pack from where she'd dumped it last night and took the shrink ray from the high closet above the fitted wardrobe.

"The players are all assembled - excellent. Equipment check! Shrink ray?"

"Check!", said Makie as she put it in the pack.

"Mahora train station timetable?"

"Check!"

"Train fare?"

She peeked into her purse. "*sigh* Check - just about."

"Mobile phone and number for Nippon Television City Corporation?"

"Check!"

"Bubble wrap?"

"Check!"

"My First Voice Changer?"

"Check!"

"Convenience store bento?"

"Check!"

"Then, we are **ready**! Tonight Makie, we shall become as GODS!"

She clapped and cheered. "YAAAY! But remind me not to miss the train back; it only runs until nine o' clock."

The Brain looked at her askance. "Not even circus clowns are as effective at destroying the sense of drama as you."

"Ehehehe..."

Makie changed into her jogging clothes again, (this being a useful cover story) then swung the pack onto her shoulder. The Brain ran up her arm and in the centre pocket of the pack, zipping it up.

"Ready, Brain-sama?"

"Ready, Makie."

"To Tokyo!" "_To Tokyo!_"

* * *

At the same time Makie was going to lunch, Hakase was discovering the mess left in her lab. While she was at heart a peace-loving girl, nobly (if sometimes explosively) working for the betterment of mankind, a disorganised workstation got her goat more than anything. Using her stuff when she expected some relaxing lunchtime circuit-bending was bad enough, but THIS...

The rage of a thousand OCD librarians burned in her heart as she yelled down the phone at her assistant for not clearing up behind him.

"Look at this! All the space in the world, all the parts you'd ever need are in the other work areas, yet you felt the need to repair your dirty old hand-vac at MY WORKSTATION!"

"But Hakase-chan..."

"IT LOOKS LIKE A BOMB HIT IT!" she screeched. (Makie had spilled several tins and containers as she scrabbled through the drawers for parts) "It'll take all morning to reorganise this! I should replace you with one of the labrats - at least they know how to clean up after themselves!"

He was just an average member of the university Robotics club; he wasn't going to sit there and be harangued by a 14-year-old, no matter how smart. Especially for something he hadn't even done. "_Hakase!_" he shouted back, "I haven't been in there at all! I don't even own a hand vacuum. Why are you blaming _me_?"

This stopped her short. Anger winding down as her brain started to work, she said, "Well if you didn't, who was it then?"

"Check the security tapes, Einstein-chan", he snapped, still annoyed. "**I** won't be on them."

But no-one was on them. It had been turned off.

"How could this be? I used a 16-digit randomised password to secure it! I even asked the security guard to lock the override key away specially in the safe. Who would even go to the trouble to-"

In unison, they said, "Chao."

* * *

After class, Hakase cornered Chao, angrily demanding answers, confusion increasing as Chao supplied them.

"You're sure you've never been in my lab?"

"Not _never_, but certainly not in the last month or two. I not need to!"

That was true - she spent most of her time in the facilities hidden deep in the catacombs, nursemaiding the robot army and Chachamaru's secret clone sisters. Taking over the world took hard work, dedication and a mass of future technology Chao had forbidden Hakase from even seeing, lest it corrupt the timeline. Any more than it had been, anyway. (But that is a story for another time.)

"But who else in our classes could disable _my_ security system, use _my_ stuff _and_ get away with it?" Mind whirring away, Hakase began to sort through possible candidates.

Meanwhile, Chao noticed one particular member of the class leaving early. Someone who had recently impressed and puzzled their teachers with her occasionally stellar homework, when previously she'd always been average. Someone that, according to Ako, had been stepping up her training to go running at all hours of the night. She smiled slightly.

Her? This could be _fun_.

* * *

The departures board flashed '18:02 - ASAMA 506 SHINKANSEN direct to TOKYO' as Makie hurried to the right platform in Oomiya Station. A smattering of people from school were among the diehard Tokyoites and tired commuters making the same journey, but thankfully no-one she knew.

The polished nose of the bullet train rumbled into the station. Ever mindful that she was hiding a small, talking mouse, she took a seat that had a carriage wall behind and a window to her right. Some muffled grumbling escaped the pack as she carefully placed it on the luggage shelf.

"Brain-sama, shh!", hissed Makie. "I can't let you out till I'm sure we won't be seen!" She pretended to be checking the zip as someone passed her by, then continued, "Until then, bear with it. Please?"

Silence. She took that as assent and sat down as the train pulled out of the station.

* * *

"Pork?", said Makie.  
"Yours.", said the Brain.  
"Egg?"  
"Mine."  
"Fried seaweed?"  
"Yeugh, yours."

Makie and the Brain were dividing up the bento, the waitress having passed them by. The mouth of Makie's bag was open, facing her on the little table. She couldn't let him out, so as a compromise, her phone was resting on top so she could pretend to talk into it while really talking to the Brain inside. She didn't get odd looks - this was Japan - but the stiffened shoulders and frowns of her fellow passengers created a palaple aura of disapproval nonetheless.

"Rice?"  
"I'll split it. Anything else?"  
"Nothing but the chopsticks."  
"Eat what you want, and leave me the rest. Okay, bye!" She pressed a random button on the phone and closed it, praying her embarrassment didn't show on her face. This was going to be a long train ride.

* * *

For a super-intelligent and manipulative mad scientist, Chao could be surprisingly circumspect when it came to her classmates. She had a cover to maintain, true, but she also valued their friendship. So instead of a daring crack into the school's surveillance system and attracting the attention of members of the faculty, simply asking some members of the gymnastics club where she could find Makie, like any other schoolgirl, served just as well.

Curious. According to the club, Makie hadn't attended this practice and had skipped several more in previous weeks. She had a suspect. Moreover, she had a conundrum.

Telling Hakase would be the right thing to do, but she was so, so bored of supervising the production lines. She needed a challenge, and if Makie _was_ a wild talent, it was practically Chao's duty to enlist her to the cause. She'd apologise to Hakase later, but for now - field trip!

* * *

_Shinkansen - 15 minutes to Tokyo_

"Let me out or so help me-"

"Brain-samaaa...", pleaded Makie. She hoped people on the packed branch train wouldn't notice her talking to her pack. Phone. Whatever. "Please, we're nearly there."

It had been a fraught trip for the Brain. There really hadn't been an opportunity for Makie to take him out, and he'd been left to stew the entire time. He hadn't even been able to pop the bubble wrap, as the shinkansen steward had started searching for the popping sound. All he could do was fume - silently, of course.

The train finally pulled in to Shinigawa sometime after 7 in the evening. Makie puzzled out the route to the Tokyo Tower on the train map - Hamamatsucho was just two stops away on the Yamanote, but the Tower would be 15 minutes' walk after that. She could jog it in seven, but she was afraid the Brain would complain ('I rhymed again! Hee.'). A voice from her backpack interrupted her thoughts. "Are we there?", whispered the Brain.

"Brain-sama!" It was fairly busy and noisy; no-one seemed to have heard. She fumbled her phone out of her pocket and pretended to speak into it anyway. "No, we have to take a hop on another train. Can you take a bit of jogging as well? For the sake of the plan?"

"For the sake of the plan - Yes, always!"

"Brain-sama, the coast is clear!", she whispered, unzipping the top pocket to let him out.

"FINALLY! Do you know how bad an old bento box smells when it's been brewing for an hour in a warm backpack? I'll never be able to eat tuna again." He composed himself. "Status?"

"We're beside Minato Temple, it's... 19:36 and the Tokyo Tower is just ahead."

"Excellent, _excellent!_" Makie began to walk again, the Brain riding in her hood as they rounded the corner. "The tower should be deserted at this time of night..."

It wasn't. They could see people still entering and leaving the entry hall.

"What do we do _now_, Brain-sama?"

"Fear not. Get me to the security station. I should be able to convince the security guards to close early. Failing that, I shall trigger the fire alarm... Hm, the fire alarm is a far better idea. Simplicity _is_ a virtue, after all. Take note, Makie!"

"Uh, uh yes!" stammered Makie, taking out the pad the Brain had designated for his 'Brainisms'. "'Simplicity... is... a... virtue'", she intoned, scribbling. She really hoped _he_'' would remember this the next time he tried to raise an army of trained rats to subvert Japan's power grid. That wasn't a fun week.

Putting the pad away, she walked into the building.

Ten minutes later, the handful of visitors and associated staff and security were standing outside, wondering where the fire was, when a tremendous groaning and creaking emanated from the structure. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared with a crack of inrushing air.

Completely dumbstruck, they stared at the block of concrete where a 333-metre-tall tower had stood not a second ago.

"Ahh, it's Gojira!", screamed the gift shop manager.

"Don't be silly, Gojira's not real", said a waiter. "Do you see a 50-metre lizard anywhere? It must have been aliens. You hear about it all the time - someone or something is 'sampled' to assess a civilisation's worth for access to the Akashic Records."

"Well I bet it's the French! They've always been plotting to get rid of the Tower, ever since we built it!", exclaimed the gift shop manager, not willing to be outdone.

"It's aliens.", insisted the waiter.

"The French!"

"Aliens!"

"FRENCH!"

"ALIENS!"

"American KIIIICK!"

"Auugh... COSMIC FIIIST!"

The ensuing scuffle meant that no-one noticed a red-headed girl darting out, wrapping what looked like a model of the tower in bubblewrap and slipping away.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Unbeknownst to Makie, a bedraggled Chao (Hakase's sub-orbital stealth jetpacks were fast, not comfortable) watched her pick up the chibi-Tower from a few hundred metres above the nearby Zoujou-ji temple. That had just happened, hadn't it? When she'd checked the timetable that the dorm manager said Makie had asked for, followed the magical trace to the station and surmised time of departure and destination, she hadn't expected... this.

The... the... Japanese failed her and she had to resort to German. The _betroffenheit_ of an untrained gymnast having made something that ignored several physical laws at once, without calling up the slightest hint of magic, almost paralysed her. Whether she'd done it for a prank, some psychotic delusion or need for a lawn ornament, she didn't care - she **had** to have the device, and the brain that built it. Mind. Girl, she **meant** girl.

Said girl emerged from the trees. Chao refocused the sight spell on her target. What was she doing now?

o0o0o

Makie pulled some stray leaves from her hair and set off towards the station. She'd have to find a public phone out of the way so Brain-sama could issue his demands. Only... weren't the NTC offices closed by this time? She didn't know. His Leaderness had retreated into the pack to mind the Tower and to plot his speech to the NTC as she jogged, which left her mind free to consider what they'd just done.

They'd stolen something.

_She_ had helped _steal_ something. A very expensive something. And she just _knew_ Brain-sama hadn't thought far enough ahead to what would happen if they didn't agree to his demands. Or if they did.

If they were caught, she was going to be in sooo much trouble. They'd still be taking her pocket money to pay for it when she was like, _thirty_. Keeping her panic under control was hard, but she did.

A fancy sign in front of a dark brown skyscraper said _World Trade Centre Bldg._ There had to be public phones somewhere around, but he'd said the station nearby would be too exposed... There.

Ducking underneath the concrete overhang, she reached over to unzip her rucksack to extract the voice changer and Brain-sama, checking for people round every corner. The streets were relatively quiet and no-one was giving her a second glance as they took in the lack of tower, even as she heard sirens in the distance.

"The coast is clear, Brain-sama."

"Excellent, Makie", he said from inside her fist. "I shall instruct them to leave the money in unmarked bills at the base of this building within 48 hours, or they shall never see it again! Now put your hood up and let me up."

He squeezed his big head in to her sleeve and walked up her arm as delicately as he could, Makie not relishing the feel of his claws. He came out inside the hood and instructed her to hold the voice-changing toy up with one hand, pick up the receiver with the other and dial, so it would seem as if she was simply talking normally while Brain was talking.

"Yes, hello? We have your tower..."

o0o0o

From her perch atop the building across the road from the Centre, Chao lost sight of the girl's distinctive red hair under the overhang. Cancelling the sight spell, she sat and pondered the girl's mysterious motive.

As far as she could tell, Makie had been utterly mundane till her genius flowered, whereupon signs of what must have been her initial experiments had emerged. There had been the plague of rats that had chewed through the wiring of her dorm, the mysterious craters in the flowerbeds outside her window, the mind-controlling music that made cats dance... there wasn't really a pattern to them apart from their destructive nature and/or bizarre specificity. It was also completely at odds with the girl's inoffensive nature and there hadn't been any change in that.

When she added 'going to Tokyo, shrinking a famous landmark then waiting next to a building' her grand intellect drew a blank, so she resorted to empirical observation. She hadn't brought her sensor suite, just grabbed the nearest available transport - that left listening with an eavesdrop spell. "_Exaudio Makie Sasaki!_" Strange, all she could hear was her breathing and she didn't seem to be moving... perhaps she was meeting with someone? She recast with a general hearing enhancement, cupping her ear and softly saying "_Auditor._" Amidst the steadily growing alarm of the pedestrians as they took in the change in the skyline, the sirens of police cars and fire engines and among the sussurus, she heard a male voice talking on the phone through what sounded like a primitive voice changer.

"...our demands are as follows: the equivalent in local currency of five hundred million American dollars in unmarked bills or transferable bearer's bonds, placed at the base of the World Trade Centre in Minato within 48 hours from now. Once this is picked up a confederate of mine shall restore the Tokyo Tower upon its original site. You will only hear from us again if you do not follow through." There was a *clunk* as whoever-it-was hung up and a rustling of a rucksack being filled and swung on a shoulder.

Makie spoke next. "Come on, get in the bag, Brain! We'll miss the next... train. Ack, sorry Brain-sama! It won't happen again!" Chao briefly glimpsed a speck of red peeking through the hood as Makie hurried into the ground-level station entrance. Waiting, watching and listening for ten minutes revealed nothing; no man came away from under the overhang. A brief hop down to ground level and another magical trace confirmed that Makie Sasaki had been the only human to touch the phone in the last ten minutes.

Now she was really confused. And when you were confused and had incomplete information? You obliterated your assumptions and worked from what you knew to be true:

Makie had not changed in personality;

Makie was close to the events;

The events had no common thread, save that the instigator had some kind of cognitive flaw (and who didn't?);

The tower shrinking was the work of a technological genius;

Makie had disembarked, seemingly alone, at the train station in Hamamatsucho;

Only Makie had touched the phone;

A male voice had spoken the demand for a ransom;

Makie had told the male she had called Brain to get in the bag;

She may be helping whoever it was, but wasn't in charge;

He had not sounded like Negi-san, Albert Chamomile or any of the male teachers, nor did he sound like Makie doing a male voice.

What it added up to was that whoever it was, he was male in person and action, he wasn't human, he was small and had the potential to be a supervillain. Multiple personality syndrome was possible but unlikely; her file of Makie depicted an average home life with little stress.

Hmm. Well, time was a-wasting, there was a mystery to solve, a genius to recruit and she had a shinkansen to beat home.

As the jets fired up a darkly humorous thought occurred to her. What was that cartoon she'd happened upon while researching the time period? Ah. "I have to go now. My planet needs me!" she shouted, and she took off, grinning.

What good was it being from a postapocalyptic future if you couldn't laugh at yourself once in a while?

o0o0o

Taking the train home, Makie felt everyone's eyes upon her. 'You're just being paranoid', she told herself, but all the same, she was still nervous.

The students in the magical girl shows she used to watch (and still did) got caught _all the time_ when they'd done something wrong. They'd hide, run, tell ridiculous lies that would be believed instantly, but they were always, always caught in the end and made to learn a valuable lesson about friendship. Sometimes, they'd seemed like they even wanted to be caught, which hadn't made sense when they were faced with a Pretty Cure Piledriver.

Now she had an inkling; the feeling of looming catastrophe was building and she'd say anything to offload it on a teacher or parent and just be a normal girl. But if she did that Brain-sama would be alone. No-one to lend a hand with his schemes. No-one to take notes or dissuade him from the really bad ideas.

No-one to talk to.

...Next time. She'd tell... next time.

o0o0o

The buffeting had been brutal. Chao's hair had come undone from her _odango_, her lips were chapped and she'd swallowed enough bugs to make a small burger. Despite that she was smiling as she touched down. Part of the reason was imagining the potential of the genius she was about to recruit; another part was also anticipating Makie's reaction when she stepped out to confront her. Would she be guilty? Angry? Puzzled because her alter ego had been controlling her? Try to melt her with laser eyes? So many wonderful possibilities!

"...Shinkansen from Tokyo, Shinkansen from Tokyo. Stay behind the line, please."

That would be her quarry. She hit the quick release on the jetpack and set it for auto-return.

The slow trickle of passengers were coming out of the entrance. Makie had been cautious and would almost definitely be nervous, so she'd keep to the tail end of the stream of people. Now, just casually walk out and...

"Hi Makie!"

Makie, head down and looking furtive, completely blanked her future lord and master.

Oookay, try again.

"Makie, hey!"

The girl did look up this time. Enough to look her in the eye, have her eyes widen in shock and dart off.

The chase was on.

o0o0o

Why? Why why _why_ did it have to be Chao of all people? She could almost hear the xylophones of the generic anime chase scene music as, heart pumping and chest heaving, she ran for the dormitory.

The Brain was being bumped and jostled about in the pack, shouting and swearing imprecations towards science, Makie and all backpacks everywhere.

"Brain-sama! We're in trouble! Keep quiet and she might not find you!", she gasped.

"Who?"

"The smartest girl in the class. She'll catch you or study you or something! Might even get me expelled!"

She looked back and saw Chao effortlessly loping along behind her, as if it were a casual game of tag where you held back for your slower friend.

She was rocketing through the main square, about to go up the fancy steps surrounding the fountain, when her bag started getting heavier. Her mind, preoccupied with _getting away_, ignored it.

"Makie...", said the Brain.

"Not... *pant* now, Brain... sama!"

"...I _may_ have taken some shortcuts to make it portable..."

Maybe it was his tone of suppressed panic, or the Brain admitting he was wrong, but she stopped and looked behind to see the tip of the tower beginning to poke through the top of her pack.

"...how long, Brain-sama", she said wearily.

The bag ripped emphatically at the base as the tower gained a few more centimetres and a couple more kilos. "I think it would be expedient to run far away from here as quickly as possible", said the Brain.

o0o0o

Chao slowed down as she saw Makie struggle off her pack,which had nearly been obliterated by the growing tower, and quickly grab a - hand vacuum? Of course, the shrink ray - and something white that looked like a laboratory mouse. In all likelihood, that was "Brain-sama". Well, she'd already seen talking homicidal dolls and ermine elves; a genius mouse barely registered on the strangeometer.

Now to just casually walk up to Makie, gloat a bit and offer Brain-sama a position.

She was a few metres away as Makie set the backpack down with a clang that seemed to _deepen_ as the tower gained another metre. Makie, face already fighting a war between flushed and pale, paled even more... and took to her heels as if she were wearing a bomb squad shirt*.

Chao instantly followed. First rule of experimental science: A lab assistant at a dead run out-ranks the most senior scientist.

'...approximate volume of a cone structure 333 metres high... 1\3 of 3.14 by radius squared by height... hollow grid, so a fifth to tenth of that... air displaced... estimated rate of expansion all equals...' "DUCK!"

*BANG* didn't do it justice - it was a tooth-wriggling screech and a deafening thunderclap all in one. Makie and Chao were bowled over as the Tokyo Tower grew to full size in an eyeblink.

The gawkers that were part of the scenery in every chase scene, vampire attack, volleyball tournament or incursion of multidimensional creatures in Mahora were appropriately agog, till Chao stood up and shouted, "Okay CUT!" The crowd looked briefly confused, and were even more so when she began applauding. "Well done, well done! I felt wind on that special effect of yours! Give her a hand, folks!" A few claps echoed through the square. "Now I'll ask you to stand back as my assistant reverses the effect." Makie, not quite getting it but still inclined to obey the person who wasn't yet turning them in, fumbled with the shrink ray and turned it on the new feature in the main square.

The tower shrank back down to holiday souvenir size. Chao picked it and helped Makie stand up, noting the little lump hiding in the collar of her hoodie.

"This has been collaboration between University Science Club and Gymnastics Club! Look forward to our new show!" To Makie, she said, "Smile and wave."

Makie gave the small crowd a toothpaste smile as Chao gently grasped her arm and steered them towards the science lab. Still smiling and waving, Makie said nervously, "I- I can explain."

"I expecting explanation, yes. But not from you. Isn't that right, Brain?"

The Brain stuck his head out. "Curses, how did you... I mean, squeak squeak?"

"Nice try. You", and she pointed at the chagrined little mouse, "mad scientist. Me", pointing at herself, "even _madder_, _magical_ scientist." She smiled happily. "You no chance."

Silently, Makie and the Brain walked towards an uncertain future.

o0o0o

She couldn't believe it. Living in Mahora had honed her sense of denial, sure, but she still couldn't believe it.

The tower had been returned that night, a phone call about seeing the error of their ways had been made and Chao had not only _not_ turned them in, she'd given the Brain a chance to work on her "super-science technology". It was sad, but when she'd seen the look on his face at the production lines, she couldn't deny him the chance for "collaboration". It was for the better, right?

If only looking at his empty cage didn't make her feel so sad.

o0o0o

Deep below the grounds of Mahora, mile upon mile of production lines smelted, cast, enchanted and ground raw materials into Chao's robot army.

In a giant underground cavern, a massive four-armed magitech robot was being assembled. A tiny white figure in the control tower, ensconced on a specially-made chair, eyed the chart of incomprehensible symbols on the wall and compared them with the output on the screen in front of him.

He pressed a green button. It beeped.

The screen flashed up a different set of hieroglyphs. He checked again. The green again. Beep.

Flash. Check. Beep.

Flash. Check. Beep.

Flash. Check. Bit of variety - red this time. Boop.

Three more months of 'probation'. Of being a 'team player'. Then and only then would Chao induct him into the inner circle to help take over the world with her foolproof plan.

The Brain mustered all his mental capability and considered the situation.

"Fiddlesticks."

*"If you see me running, try to keep up."

* * *

**Epilogue**

The climactic final battle of Negi and Chao was well over, the after party almost over and the tattered and torn Chao had gone back to her own time with gifts from all her classmates. Makie was exhausted and was about to head for her soft, warm bed when Hakase approached her.

"Hi Hakase, whatcher..." She spotted a tiny white figure standing on the science girl's outstretched hand.

"Brain?", she said wonderingly. "BRAIN-SAMA!" The gymnast scooped him up and began kissing and stroking his head.

"Oh Brain-sama I knew you weren't happy I knew you missed me I missed you too so much..."

"Makie... Makie... stop it... please..."

Hakase coughed to get their attention. "Ahem. Now I have discharged this part of Chao-san's instructions, I am to inform you that any unauthorised usage of the University Lab will result in the exile of the Brain to an ermine prison. Chao's laboratories and workshops have been vitrified." She leaned in to glare at the Brain. "In brief: touch my equipment again and I will _pith_ you to remove the threat."

"Can't we forgive and forget? It was four months ago", he said.

Hakase's glare intensified, promising needles too. "NO."

"Un-Understood."

She walked off, muttering.

"Scary", said Makie. "Brain-sama? What was it like?"

"Frustrating. That Chao - she gave up at her moment of triumph! Given her resources, she should have won. No, I shall not make the same mistakes..."

A small smile crept onto her face. She'd missed this. She'd actually missed this.

"...for tomorrow night, I shall REALLY take over the world!"

"Brain-samaaa..."

And they walked into the sunrise of a new day.

_THEY'RE MAKIE, THEY'RE MAKIE AND THE BRAIN!_

* * *

Author's notes: All places are real places in Tokyo that I saw on my one trip to Japan in 2009 (except for Mahora). Yes, there really is a building called the World Trade Centre in Minato. What, you thought America had the monopoly? :-P I had to make up the location of the public phone as I don't remember one, and Google Maps was not forthcoming. Also, I swear I did not remember the honest-to-Hawking shrink ray in the first season episode "Tokyo Grows" when I started writing this, even though I must have watched it.

The sight spell is a simpler version of the Clairvoyance spell used by Aisha in Vol. 24 - I thought it'd be a simple 'telescope' spell that Chao could cast without blowing her cover. The Eavesdrop and listen spells are common-sense extensions of this. The magical trace is pure plot device. ^_^


End file.
